How to Give an Interview

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Conducting a successful journalistic or research interview requires asking the right questions. It also requires a willing interviewee who is willing to tell the truth and elaborate on their knowledge. Follow this two-step process to understand the give-and take of an interview.

Record the interview with a voice memo on a cell phone or with a tape recorder. Ask the person for permission. If they allow you to, you can take fewer notes and pay more attention to your questions during the interview.

Summarize. If a person has given you a long rambling response, try summing it up with “It sounds like what you’re saying…. Is that a fair summary?” You might be able to pin the person down more on a subject.

It is important to take control of the interview and steer the conversation to your priorities after digressions, unless you are hoping the interviewee will digress.[3]

Research possible questions that you might be asked. If you would like to sound like an expert, read trade journals, web articles and books the week before the interview. If you are going to quote something it should be correct.

Conduct the interview on neutral turf unless the journalist or researcher asks to do the interview in your office or in your home. Understand that any information that they gather from the setting may be used to describe you.

Be yourself. If you’ve done research and practiced a little, the information you want to convey is likely to be on the forefront of your mind. Show your personality during an interview, while being professional.

Don’t be afraid to elaborate. If the interviewer seemed to skip over something that is important, you can say, “I’d like to go back to that” or “I think this is an important part that we should touch on.”

Include the full name of yourself, your business, your school or any other info that might be important. The interviewer doesn’t always do their research properly, so feel free to provide them with background information that is advantageous to you.

Community Q&A

It would depend on the situation. If it is to let them know they are not the successful candidate, be honest and say, "I'm sorry, but we're going to go with another candidate for this position. Thank you for your interest."

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wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. Together, they cited 5 references. This article has also been viewed 16,103 times.